The Cell Walls
by Surreptitious Chi X
Summary: AU. Drizzt continuity ends post Silent Blade. He is thrown into a cell with post Sellsword Trilogy Artemis. They may work out their differences...Or they might die without ever reconciling. Story cut up into a series of scenes.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: The idea is this: What would it take for Drizzt and Entreri to end up together?

A series of scenes set post Sellswords Trilogy for Artemis, but for Drizzt, his continuity is cut off after the last time he and Artemis met, The Silent Blade. Why? Because this is the next time Artemis sees him, so I use that as a basis for an alternate reality, since Artemis doesn't know what happened since their last meeting. I happen not to like the stories of Drizzt after The Silent Blade.

**Part 1**

-------------------

The cell was dirty, and filled with soiled straw. There were two chamber pots that smelled as if they'd never been cleaned in their inanimate life, and both tiny windows providing ventilation were barred. Spider webs were in every corner. It was a thoroughly depressing place.

Moreso because a haunted ex-assassin and a self-absorbed dark elven ranger had been thrown into the same cell, and now sat against opposite walls.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't that partner of yours be here as well?" Drizzt pursed his lips.

Artemis stiffened. "Jarlaxle and I…parted ways."

Drizzt raised an eyebrow. "Parted ways? You make it sound like a mutual agreement. Somehow I doubt that either of you has the maturity or level-headedness for that."

Artemis' eyes burned with anger. "You always have to be right, don't you?" he snapped. "You can't leave me alone, even for a moment to have a civil conversation."

"I should have a civil conversation with you? Why?"

Artemis turned away, jaw clenched.

_That's better,_ Drizzt thought, eyeing Entreri with distrust. _What does he think he has to gain by conversing with me anyway? An escape attempt together? _

"How," Artemis began, clearing his throat. "How is Catti-brie?"

"What?" Drizzt asked incredulously.

Artemis spoke slowly. "How is the girl?"

"She is no longer a girl, Entreri. She is a full grown woman." Drizzt narrowed his eyes at the man, irritated. "What is it to you?"

"In case one thing you haven't inherited from your people is an elven memory, Do'Urden, I recall plotting an escape attempt with her in order to save your life."

Drizzt snorted. "In order to help you escape the Underdark, you mean."

"In exchange for your life."

"And yours."

Artemis growled at him. "Is it so terrible that you allowed me to survive?"

"Yes." Drizzt stared at him. "Now that you mention it, yes. It is."

The ex-assassin looked away. "Fair enough."

That startled Do'Urden. He would have expected Artemis to make some kind of speech about how he was a man who did what he could to survive, and no one could judge him harshly for surviving successfully in spite of many attempts to get rid of him. Instead, here was this tired human man who didn't behave anything like Artemis Entreri.

It troubled him. He didn't like his foundations being shaken.

"Entreri?"

The Calishite actually winced. "Not that. Never that. Not now. D…Just call me Artemis. Please."

Please? Drizzt mouthed. He stared. Luckily for him, Artemis didn't notice his reaction. The ex-assassin was too busy looking at the cracks between the stones paving the floor.

"Then…am I to allow you in return to call me Drizzt?"

"If you care…to put it that way."

Drizzt shifted uncomfortably. "Then call me Drizzt."

Artemis nodded. He didn't look up. Finally, he muttered, "This is the end, isn't it."

Drizzt shifted again. "The end? What do you mean?"

Artemis favored him with a bleak smile. "I shall be tried and executed, Drizzt." He even winked, albeit it was a mirthless one. "Just like you've always wanted. Won't you be pleased?"

Drizzt summoned a rebellious scowl. "Even if you've changed, I don't see why you deserve to escape the consequences of your former self."

Artemis laughed, a colorless, bleak sound. "That's just it. I'm sure Jarlaxle would agree with you."

That made Drizzt immediately suspicious. "Why?"

The ex-assassin shuddered, an uncontrollable gut reaction. "That, you see, is why we parted ways, and if you decide to pry into my business, ranger, I may save our captors the task of killing you."

"Alright, then I won't ask," Drizzt retorted. "Now who's being uncivil?"

Artemis looked at him with a straight face. "I was being perfectly civil. Isn't it an act of civility to warn you about such things?"

"No, that's called a threat."

Artemis shrugged. "My mistake."

There was no food, and no water. Drizzt saw that as a desolate confirmation of what Artemis had speculated. They were going to die. He curled up and tried to find peace in reverie.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

-------------------

A day without food or water was beginning to have an effect on the both of them. Artemis didn't look as though he had slept well, and Drizzt knew for a fact that he was feeling sluggish and run-down. He didn't like the extra heaviness in his arms when he tried to lift his scimitars.

Once again, as with the day before, the only thing to look at was each other, and they were each other's only source of companionship.

_Why have they taken away my Guenhwyvar, but not my weapons?_ Drizzt mourned. _I can't talk to Icingdeath and Twinkle. They won't understand my pain._ His chest ached.

"It's time to settle up, isn't it?" Artemis said.

Drizzt frowned. "Settle up?"

Artemis sighed. "Well, you can't take earthly burdens with you where we're going." He looked contemplative. "Based on what I've heard, I doubt I'll even exist much longer."

They both knew he was referring to the oblivion awaiting any unclaimed souls that none of the gods wanted. Unbelievers, and those atheists who had done nothing worthy of Kelemvor's mercy.

The notion made Drizzt uncomfortable. He'd supposed until now that he'd served Mielikki faithfully. But he prayed to her rarely, thinking that she would show her displeasure in the same obvious way as Lloth if he did something wrong. But what if she didn't want him? He wasn't an ordinary follower of Mielikki, and he hadn't had any real contact with her followers in over a decade. What if he didn't know something that he was expected to learn? A real chill of fear crept through him at the thought that he might share the very same fate as Entreri, the man he'd been opposed to ever since they met.

"You're here, and I'm here," Artemis said.

Drizzt looked at him. "You mean…?"

"Well, there are some unresolved things between us."

Drizzt smiled slightly. "That's an understatement."

The ex-assassin looked at the floor distantly, clearly uncomfortable. "I should never have chased you," he said. "I should have accepted you as a loss, one loss of many in my young life, but in my foolishness and pride, I sought you out. Are you ready to pity me? You were the source of meaning in my life, for so many years. I should not have burdened you, a stranger who had nothing to do with me, with defining my life, but I did, and I have." He folded his arms over his knees. "I am sorry that I ever did so. Mostly because if I had not, I doubt I would be in such a dire position as the one we are in now."

Drizzt listened to this speech in silence. He didn't know what to offer in return. Then he thought of his behavior yesterday and was humbled. "I did not behave appropriately. If you have erred…then I may have. You are not the only one to burden strangers with your life's meaning."

He looked away, uncertain why he was even saying this to the man. He expected nothing but mockery and pain in return for his admissions. "I relied on you to be the evil that I could always fight. I could never be wrong, because I was facing you, and you were something to be banished from my life and the lives of everyone around me."

Oddly, Artemis smiled, and seemed genuinely comforted by this admission. "Then you did take notice of me." His smile was sad. "That is more than I had ever expected to hear from the lips of someone who could do no wrong."

"Of course I did! How could I not take notice of someone who made it their life's mission to kill me?" Drizzt snapped. "That kind of animosity is far from the usual reaction when meeting me, even given that I am a drow in a human's world."

This response surprised a chuckle out of Artemis. "I am, and was, far from the ordinary individual."

"I noticed," Drizzt said dryly. "You pursued me from one end of Faerun to the other."

Artemis shook his head in self-mockery, a smile upon his lips. "Would you believe it was Jarlaxle who arranged for our last battle? I was never going to bother you or your friends ever again. It was he who convinced me it would 'lay my demons to rest' if I could fight you one last time."

Drizzt looked down at the floor. "I would believe that…since it was Jarlaxle who told me himself."

Artemis threw back his head and laughed, a throaty, despairing sound. "I should have known. I should have known to begin with that he would involve you in his charade. How else could he save you, after all?"

Drizzt saw in that moment something he had never suspected: Jarlaxle had truly manipulated Artemis, and to a degree that he had never predicted would be possible. The epiphany cut him like shrapnel, his entire view of Entreri shattered. He had been up against a vulnerable man – a man of so much confusion that even when declaring he knew what he was doing, he couldn't comprehend the evils he was committing.

"I never truly blamed you for that fight," Drizzt said. "Not even my death. Jarlaxle was the one who arranged it."

Artemis shuddered, this time a tremble of uncontainable bitterness. His eyes were suddenly full of pain and age-old anger that seemed to have rusted over. "I was trying to kill myself."

Drizzt stared at him.

Artemis laughed. "Jarlaxle couldn't have that, now could he? He needed me as a pawn later."

The elven ranger felt his temper rising. He was appalled. Regardless of what Entreri had done, that didn't give Jarlaxle or anyone else the right to twist the assassin to their own ends. What was wrong was wrong, regardless of who did it, and who was the victim. The same way that he had seen countless drow twisted to the will of Lloth, Artemis had been twisted to the will of Jarlaxle!

Artemis' story even touched upon the center of Drizzt's grief: the willing death of his father. If there was one thing he had carried away from the scarring experience, it was the nobility of self-sacrifice when a brave man could cope no longer. And Jarlaxle had taken that away from Artemis.

_My father's friend?_ Drizzt clenched his scimitars hard enough to hurt his hands. _My father would never be friends with the likes of you! You weren't even on the same page! You have none of the values that my father once did._ Jarlaxle's attempt to manipulate him the same way he had Artemis with that story of being his father's friend suddenly burned inside of him, a worse pain than he had known even at the hands of Duk-Tak.

Artemis glanced over at him. The ex-assassin's expression changed to one of mild surprise. "You can't have been oblivious to Jarlaxle's manipulating nature." He shook his head. "I underestimated him, and this is what I deserve." He gestured to the dirty cell around him. "I can't ask for anything more than this in return for being a fool."

"You weren't a fool to believe a friend." Drizzt's voice trembled.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. He whispered, "That, my friend, is where I believe you are wrong."

"No, I'm right," Drizzt said. He turned and looked at Artemis resolutely, conviction hard in his lavender eyes. "You should not have to fear betrayal from a friend, if that friend is a true friend."

"Then you and I will just have to disagree." Artemis' slight smile was back. "I admire your spirit, Do'Urden, but I can't accept it as my own. I have learned too much to the contrary to ever believe in that ideal again."

"Then why speak to me so freely?" Drizzt demanded.

Artemis opened his hands. "We're going to die." His smile was entirely out of place, as innocent and calm as Drizzt had ever seen on the assassin's face. "It's as simple as that. Why bother with defenses when I know they will fail me?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

-----------------------

Drizzt mulled over his words in foreboding silence. _Why bother with defenses when I know they will fail me? _He slowly realized that his flesh was crawling. It couldn't truly be the end, could it?

"We are cut off from the rest of the world," Drizzt said. "That's what you believe."

Artemis shrugged. "Believe what you want. All I know is that I was taken here against my will, under duress, and now I sit here with you in a cell I do not remember coming to."

"We're…we're outside Luskan. Or I thought we were."

"That explains everything," Artemis said dryly. He gestured to the dirty cell around them. "This is a perfect example of Luskan justice."

Drizzt snorted. "Dirty, inexplicable, and crazy-making?"

"Yes."

They sat in silence.

"It's cold –" Artemis said.

"Yes."

Artemis gave Drizzt a look. "Don't interrupt me."

"Oh? You were saying something else?"

"Yes." Artemis glared. "Now, as I was saying, it's cold of them to leave you here."

"Who?" Drizzt asked, frowning.

The assassin gave him a look as if he were insane. "Your friends. The people who are never out of your sight. If you're so relatively close to home, where are they? Why have you been captured when you're known in this area as a hero of the land?"

"Why do you care?" Drizzt asked. "You're going to die."

"Call it curiosity."

"Well, if you call it curiosity, then how about this: my friends are law abiding citizens, and they are probably appealing to the forces of justice inside this town to let us go."

"You."

"What?" Drizzt stared at him.

Artemis stared back. "You, Do'Urden. They're appealing the forces of justice inside Luskan to let you go. Not me."

"I said that."

Artemis laughed. "You said 'us'."

Drizzt suddenly found himself blushing horribly. "I – Well…We…You are the only other person in here. So I made a mistake," he snapped. "Pardon my slip of the tongue. They're petitioning to let me go, and we're all going to leave you here to die."

Artemis raised both eyebrows at him and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall comfortably. "You sound as though you don't want to."

"What?"

"Whatever happened to executing the evil assassin?" Artemis asked, clearly teasing.

Drizzt looked away. "Execution is a little harsh, don't you think?"

"Do I?"

"Then you can't learn from your mistakes," Drizzt said.

"That's nothing new," Artemis said, shrugging. "To make a mistake is to die."

"That's not true!"

The assassin looked at him directly until he stilled his tongue. "Calm yourself. Do you always get so worked up over an argument?"

Drizzt crossed his arms. "Only if the person I'm arguing with is wrong."

Artemis laughed. "Then you must be worked up all the time. You always think your opponent is wrong."

"You're trying to change the subject." Drizzt's eyes flashed. "If you die before you can learn, then you'll never make any worthy contributions to the world."

The assassin looked as though he was going to say something, but he paused and stopped himself. "That may be true."

"Then what is your problem?" Drizzt exclaimed. "Do you want to die?"

"It's not a question of want, Do'Urden. We are going to die. Luskan does not simply let its precious prisoners go. Prisoners escape, or they are executed. If your friends aren't willing to do something illegal to save you, you are going to die as surely as I am."

Drizzt sat back helplessly, a million retorts on his lips.

"Breaking the law is no way to fix things," he finally said.

Artemis smiled. "How about this: If there were no laws, there would be no way to break them."

"You're insane! That's a fool's logic! We have to have laws."

"Why?"

Drizzt turned away. "I have seen what happens without them." He was referring to Menzoberranzan. Judging by the hard look in Entreri's eyes, he knew what the elf was talking about.

"That may be true," Artemis said. "But you…I gather that you have never been on the wrong side of the law before. It is not pleasant."

"I've been on the wrong side of the law lots of times!" Drizzt said. "I was constantly being locked up for being the color I am."

"But that's not a law," Artemis said. "That's racism. Nothing more. When it is a law that keeps you here, Do'Urden, you will find that the chains do not break nearly so easily."

"Lady Alustriel will help me," Drizzt said quietly. "If I know my friends, they have already contacted her."

Artemis rested the back of his head against the wall and closed his eyes. "Then good luck."

"Artemis?"

Artemis sat perfectly still.

Drizzt took that as a sign he was still listening. "What did Jarlaxle do? Exactly? I mean, why did you leave?" He was taking a chance, guessing that it has been Artemis who left first, and not Jarlaxle, but he thought his intuition would steer him right.

"You wouldn't understand."

Drizzt let the silence rest for a while before trying again. "What do you mean?"

Artemis sighed. "You are an annoying cellmate. Perhaps I should ask for a transfer when they check to make sure we're both going to survive for the trial."

"Entreri."

"I do not ever want to hear that name again! Entreri is not my name!"

Drizzt sat there, looking at him with wide eyes. He tried to think of something to say to that. "Oh."

"Yes. 'Oh'." Artemis snorted. "How would you like to find out that the name you have been carrying around isn't even your father?"

"I…"

"Or your mother's?"

Drizzt got the picture. "I wouldn't like it."

"I wouldn't like it." Artemis looked at the ceiling. "Now he's become the King of Understatements." He looked Drizzt in the eyes. "Yes, exactly. You'd feel that name was a travesty, wouldn't you. Another joke the gods decided to play on you for Ao knows what reason. You wouldn't want to hear it again, would you?"

"Sorry."

The ex-assassin sighed. He studied the mold in the mortar between stones in the floor. "I still…cannot come to terms with that. I suppose I never will. I would not have enough time even if I lived for another century."

"Your name?"

"Yes."

Drizzt started putting together the pieces, and he felt a sense of pervasive dread. "It…This is what Jarlaxle did to you, isn't it."

Artemis looked at him questioningly.

"He found out your name. Where it came from."

Artemis passed a hand over his eyes. "Yes, and no."

Drizzt bit his lip. There was a question he'd had for a long time, and now he thought he might believe the answer. He thought…maybe it was time to ask it. He'd almost stopped caring about the answer, but now, he did care. "Why did you become an assassin?"

Artemis gave him a look. His expression told clearly that he thought was he was about to say was utterly ridiculous. "I thought killing would keep me safe."

"That's a perfectly logical idea," Drizzt said, trying to look as innocent as possible. He didn't know what would happen if he laughed. The assassin suddenly reminded him of Zaknafein, back when he thought of him as Uncle Zak. Crazy, unpredictable, and as prone to laughter at one of his comments as he was to beating Drizzt unconscious for it.

Artemis snorted. "It has its fallacies."

"I see."

They were interrupted by a scraping racket. A guard was opening their cell door. He grunted, glanced at them, and tossed two things at their feet. One was a large canteen. The other was an object bundled up in cheap brown paper.

Drizzt covered his ears at the ensuing scraping racket as the guard closed their door again.

Artemis looked to him.

Drizzt took that as a sign that it was his responsibility. He sighed and unwrapped the paper bundle. He wrinkled his nose. "Stale crackers."

"Hmm." Artemis rubbed his chin, pretending to consider deeply. "I'll wait for breakfast."

Drizzt grinned. "I thought you were going to switch cells."

"Slipped my mind."

Drizzt tossed him the canteen. "Sounds like dehydration."

The assassin caught it, and looked at it for a moment. Then he gave Drizzt a strange, unreadable look and took a drink of water. He silently put the cap back on and held it out.

Drizzt walked across the cell and accepted it, taking a drink of his own. Then, looking around, he took a chance and sat down where he was.

Artemis made a noncommittal sound at his relocation to the assassin's side of the cell and then turned away.

"I'll take that as a welcome," Drizzt said.

"Mmmn."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

--------------------------

Drizzt hugged his knees to his chest to conserve body heat. "Why are you here?"

Artemis gave him a look.

This was the next day. Though they had no way to prove it, they knew when they woke up that it was the morning of a new day. Their warriors' senses were too finely honed to lose track of time, even in a cell. Artemis had drank more water, but refused to touch the crackers.

Drizzt nibbled on them. "So…?"

Artemis was still staring at him. "Why do you care?"

Drizzt shrugged. "Call it curiosity."

The ex-assassin looked away. "I could call it a lot of things."

"Nosiness?" Drizzt said with a smile.

"That's one of my choices."

"I told you why I was here," Drizzt said.

"You did not," Artemis protested immediately.

Drizzt laughed.

Artemis flushed, growling at him. "Do not play games with me. I hardly like raising my voice."

Drizzt considered. That was true. The assassin did seem more of a soft-spoken type. A thorny soft-spoken type, but still not inclined to shouting. "Then I will tell you."

Artemis raised an eyebrow.

"I have been accused of some crime," Drizzt said. "That is the only explanation."

"You'd better hope not," Artemis said. "Those the Magistrate catches are usually put to death, in spite of all pleas to the contrary. If I were you, I would hold out for a mistake. Drow all look alike to most surface dwellers."

It took two seconds for Drizzt to realize Artemis was talking about himself. "Even if I spoke for you, you don't believe you'll be leaving here alive."

Artemis snorted. "And would you do such a foolhardy and pointless thing?"

"Execution is not justice if the person has changed their ways," Drizzt said, shifting uncomfortably. He was too aware of the sour taste in his mouth left by the stale crackers.

"I am too old to change my ways."

"You already have!" Drizzt exclaimed. He waved his hands. "Can't you see it? You're not the same person I faced a thousand times! You're different!"

"More downtrodden," Artemis corrected. "Not different. I am the same as I have always been, and I always will be. The only proper end for a person like me is execution in front of the masses. It upsets you, but it is the truth. I can't help if it wounds your idealistic spirit."

Drizzt glared at him. "Listen to yourself. The assassin I knew would never say such a thing."

Artemis paused before responding. He seemed unsure of himself for a moment. Then he put on a hard-edged mask. "You never knew me."

Drizzt couldn't contain himself any longer from moving throughout the room. He was tired and hungry, true, but now he was also angry. "If you want to be executed, you will have to find a different room," he snapped.

Artemis glared at him. "Why is that?"

"I can't watch someone whose life is so close to turning around throw it all away for the sake of preserving their personal angst."

Artemis laughed incredulously. "And you're one to talk."

"Yes. I am." Drizzt stopped and looked straight at him. "It's true, I was a miserable creature. I am sorry that I bothered everyone I met with my insecurity about being a drow. But I got over that. I decided that I didn't care. If the love of my life didn't care, I shouldn't care either. And I don't."

"So love is the answer."

Drizzt almost couldn't speak, facing the look that came into the assassin's eyes. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he was going to let the wrong thing come out of his mouth. "Yes," he finally said, because he knew he was doomed to say it eventually.

"You're wrong." Artemis looked at the floor with smoldering eyes. "You're wrong, Drizzt."

Drizzt flinched. Artemis said his name almost like a swear word.

"Let me tell you something about love, Drizzt. Love stabs deeper than the longest stiletto, stings more than the worst wound you've ever had, and humiliates more deeply than all the scum and villainy in the world has the power to do."

Drizzt sat down. "You sound like you have some earthly burdens to let go of," he said quietly.

"I killed. Twice."

Drizzt didn't understand. _He's killed innumerable times._

"First, the lover of a woman I didn't even know. I pushed her when she fell unconscious before I realized that she wasn't threatening me. Then, the woman I loved fell through a window. Because of me. It killed her. I can't see how anyone could have survived what I did to her."

"You didn't kill on purpose?"

Artemis' chin trembled slightly. "No."

Drizzt raised his eyes to the ceiling. He got up and started to pace restlessly again. "Let me see if I understand this. You're saying that you killed someone you loved because you got into some kind of argument, and somehow she ended up going through a window, and because of something you did, she's dead now."

Artemis smiled at him. "Argument is a mild way of describing an attempt on my life."

Drizzt didn't want to know. He didn't know what was making him ask these things, since the life Artemis led was nothing short of one mess, one nightmare after another, and he derived no pleasure at all from listening to the recital of Artemis' miseries. "She tried to kill you."

"Yes."

"And you threw her out a window."

"…Yes."

"And you're sorry because she died?"

"How would you feel if your lover died?" Artemis snapped. "Would it matter what she did? She wasn't thinking clearly! She had problems of her own, and when I proved to be weak and defective, it is no wonder that she broke under the strain." He turned away. "It is not Calihye's fault. It will never be Calihye's fault. It's my fault."

Drizzt knew what Artemis was feeling. He'd felt the same way after facing Ellifain and living. He'd wanted Ellifain to kill him. He'd tortured that child, and it was because of him that she was mad. _But I got through it! I have family, and friends who care about me! You can't just give up after facing something terrible._

Drizzt measured his words carefully. "It may be that nothing can change that, but there are things…and people, to live for."

His words were met with a derisive, disbelieving sound from Artemis. "Who am I living for? Jarlaxle? You? The promise of meeting someone before I die?"

_How can a man who's lived forty years have no one? _"Then think about things you want to do."

"I want," Artemis said slowly, "to kill Jarlaxle for causing me this much pain."

Drizzt grimaced. "That's a start."

"A bad start."

Drizzt shrugged. "I can't blame you. I'm sure a lot of people want Jarlaxle dead."

"No…" Artemis shook his head. "Revenge isn't the way. I've had ample opportunities for revenge, and I haven't taken them. Revenge is what brought me to this cell. To death."

"You see?" Drizzt asked. "You have changed."

"That may be." He looked at Drizzt. "But what good is that now?"

"I can't tell." Drizzt shrugged. His face hardened. "Neither can you, unless you escape from this cell."

"Now he wants me to escape." Artemis rolled his eyes. "Where to? Mithral Hall?"

Drizzt scowled at him. "How about Calimport? You seem to like that place well enough."

"Calimport, however, doesn't like me," Artemis said. "I've been as banished as anyone has ever been from that place. If I escaped here, only to go there, I would have been served just as well waiting for my execution."

Drizzt groaned. "Is there _any_ place that wants you?"

"I'll let you think about that."

Though he wasn't angered by Artemis nearly as easily as he had been in the past, Drizzt felt waves of exasperation coming in. "Then take it one step at a time. Think about escaping first before you decide where you want to go."

He gestured to their dirty cell. The cobwebs in the corners, the dirty straw, the stone walls encrusted with gritty black grime and stinking mold, the chamber pots. "Do you really want to stay here for the rest of your life?"

"Your logic is impeccable," Artemis said. "Except that I won't have to spend the rest of my life here. I'm likely to be dead before the week is out."

Drizzt stomped his foot. "You're hopeless."

"And you're childish. I think we're even."

"If you think I'm so childish, you won't mind if I do this, then," Drizzt said. He flashed Artemis a rude gesture and crossed his arms. Then he stuck his tongue out at the assassin.

"Bravo. This is the drow who changed everyone's perceptions about him." Artemis rubbed his chin. "How…did you do that, again?"

"By cutting off everyone's heads so there were no more faulty brains to think with," Drizzt said. He maintained a solemn face. "That way they knew I was a peaceful, law-abiding drow."

Artemis tried not to, but he ended up smiling at that. "Makes sense. I see your true brilliance."

Drizzt bowed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

--------------------

To Artemis, the misery of these days inside the cell helped mold them all together into one vast, never-ending day in jail waiting to be executed. He hardly slept now, and it did not matter to him. He was sitting in a strange limbo between life and death, and somehow fittingly, his only companion was his arch rival. He viewed them both as no more than ghosts, really. That was what lent to the strange, companionable atmosphere in the cell.

"What regrets do you have?" Artemis asked. He found a pebble in one pocket and threw it across the cell. It bounced, skittering and tapping. He watched it for a moment. "Now that you're going to die, I mean?"

"I'm not going to die," Drizzt protested.

"Then if you were," Artemis prompted smilingly. "What would you most regret?"

Drizzt seemed subdued at this question. "I think…I would most regret that I have not as yet kissed the woman I love."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "That's an innocent regret. Don't you have anything else you want to unburden from your soul?"

Drizzt frowned, shaking his head. "I don't…I don't think it constructive to dwell on such things. They belong in the past."

"Isn't everything the past when you no longer have a future?"

Drizzt looked at him with a faintly incredulous expression. "What if you were to escape? Let me ask you that. Would you still be dwelling on things that have passed long ago?"

"Whether it is Jarlaxle's fault does not matter," Artemis said. The floor was bleakly familiar, every crack and stain, but he kept looking at it, a feeling of dread stealing over him. He didn't know what was going to happen to him at this admission or how he would be perceived. "The fact remains that since becoming his 'partner' and even more so since I have been discarded as no more meaningful than a tool, I cannot survive alone. I am incapable of caring for myself. A fire, and I touch it. A trap, and I walk into it." He closed his eyes. "I cannot bring myself to care. If I do not care at all about myself, then why should you insist on my living? A man who cannot care about his own wellbeing surely doesn't care about anyone else's."

"Jarlaxle is not capable of friendship," Drizzt said. A deep and burning emotion was in his lavender eyes. He put a hand on Artemis' shoulder. "That does not – has never meant – that you cannot be capable of friendship. You trusted him – and that is what friendship is. You cannot give up." Then he looked angry, but the anger was directed inwards, because he turned away. "I had given up on you. If I hadn't insisted on keeping you in your role as evil, all of this would never have happened. I could have stopped Jarlaxle's –"

"What responsibility of it is yours?" Artemis demanded, interrupting. "Are you my friend? Have you ever been? Is it your sole obligation to keep Jarlaxle from doing what Jarlaxle sees fit? Why are you bothering to squeeze even a drop of remorse from your hatred of me?"

"I can't sit by and let someone who needs my help go into the Abyss! My personal feelings are irrelevant! I would not be who I am if I allowed someone on the verge of redemption to dispose of themselves simply because they feel sorry for themselves," Drizzt spat.

Artemis stared at the drow ranger in surprise. "…Sorry for myself?"

Drizzt put on his most expressionless mask and crossed his arms. "What else do you call it when you're captured and sent off to die, and you hardly care because your life's been bad?"

Artemis stood up, clenching his fists. He'd reacted with instant humiliation and hesitance. He knew that Drizzt's words were true. He was tempted not to resign himself to his execution. Yet, how could Drizzt be so arrogant towards him? There was nowhere else for him to go, nothing else for him to do – no chances! Not even a single chance to do anything with his life, even if he kept it. "You…Do'Urden…for all that you are a drow, you have peoples' respect. I have no one's respect. You can live without the urge to throw yourself into a oblivion because you can never sink as low as I am."

He felt such cold anger, such vengeance and violence, that it made him numb. He couldn't contain the urge to let Drizzt know precisely whose life he was mocking as insignificant in its tortures. "Let me put this in perspective for you: You were beaten? I was raped. You were taught how to kill? I had to teach myself how to kill so that the predators in the desert didn't devour me when I was nine years old. You lived with a society full of hypocrisy? I lived in the streets, covered in mud and eating garbage to survive another day. When you came to the surface, you escaped. I ran away from home, to make myself a new life, and ended up the half-starved jackal of a thieves' guild! Don't talk to me about pain. If you lived in this much pain, you would have lost your mind or killed yourself long ago! I lived this layer of hell you escaped every day!"

He barely realized that he was yelling at the top of his lungs until his throat was raw and his eyes were burning with pain from holding back intense emotion. "You. Don't. Know. Me."

He stood there, in shocked silence, and realized for the first time since his ordeal that Calihye dying and Jarlaxle betraying him was on its own insignificant. It just happened to be the chain of events that finally put the last straw on the camel's back.

It was absurd how much he really had survived. He'd gotten through childhood abuse, running away from home, living on the streets, and being an assassin for thirty years…but when it came to his best friend betraying him and his only lover dying because she couldn't stand to be without him, that was too much.

The sheer ridiculousness of this made Artemis smile. For the first time, he felt he understood the cosmic joke that the gods had been setting up ever since he was born. He survived things no man or woman should ever have endured, and then when it came time to face two events ordinary people around him could have dealt with through mourning, he reached his breaking point.

He shook his head and sat down, grinning. He finally gave in to the ludicrousness of it all and felt it bubbling up in his chest. The cell room was filled with the halting sound of his own laughter.

Drizzt sat there with a paralyzed look on his face, as if he had stared down at a bottomless chasm and was still convinced he was falling over the edge when he was yanked back from the ledge.

Artemis wondered at how much his face was improved by that blank look.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

-----------------------

Counting Artemis as an enemy was hollow now. The story he'd told couldn't be used as an excuse for the things he had done…but he hadn't used it as an excuse. He had already admitted that his actions were wrong, his life was empty and a waste. And those words, which Drizzt had longed to hear once, also felt hollow. He derived no pleasure from seeing Artemis this way.

They'd been silent since yesterday. Since Artemis'…talk. Drizzt didn't dare speak another word to him, not today, and not tomorrow. He planned to be silent for all his tomorrows.

_Even a moron could see I'd pushed him too far,_ Drizzt thought, glancing over at him. _We were conversing for once, and I pushed too hard. Of course._ There was a surprising amount of bitterness in him at his behavior.

The guards had delivered food again. Jerky that could break their teeth, and more water. Artemis was only chewing on the dried meat because he had to. Hunger had forced him out of his apathy.

Drizzt declined. Instead, he sat making marks in the mold on the wall. It was the drow language. He wasn't sure what he was writing. he was just writing what little he could remember from early childhood. Since coming to the surface, he'd lost most of his knowledge of the drow written language due to disuse.

They both jumped, startled, at the sound of something hard drawn across the bars on the door to their cell. "You've got a visitor," the guard called.

Drizzt leapt to the door and reached through the bars when he saw who it was. The guard hadn't been accurate. It was more than one visitor.

"Catti-brie. Bruenor. Regis." Drizzt was suddenly choking back tears. He hadn't realized how frightened he was until he saw their faces. "W-Wulfgar." Despite himself, tears were trickling down his face.

Catti-brie wound her fingers around his. Their eyes met, and he had the urge to press himself against the bars to get closer to her.

"Durned elf," Bruenor sighed, looking away at the display.

"Drizzt," Wulfgar said. He looked decidedly drawn and pale. Drizzt thought it was being back in Luskan that was making Wulfgar look so subdued. "Are you alright?"

Drizzt glanced back at Artemis. Artemis was sitting in the corner of the cell the furthest away, looking down at a few pieces of dirty straw. "I'm alright."

"Who'd they put in there with you?" Wulfgar asked. His brow crinkled in confusion.

"He's…" Drizzt frowned. He didn't know what to say. "He's an old friend." He immediately felt guilty. "Sort of. Look, you've got to get him out of here. He's going to die."

"So're you," Wulfgar said. His eyes hardened. "They're going to kill you, Drizzt."

Catti-brie started silently crying. Drizzt now realized she wasn't speaking because she couldn't. Her throat was too tight.

Bruenor wouldn't look at him. "Aye. They've got ye in here good."

Drizzt shattered. "What did I do?"

Catti-brie started openly sobbing. "Oh, Drizzt, ye killed a Luskan man! They said he was a spy for the Magistrate! He was on business!"

"But what – where….?"

"The man in the alley." She turned away too, unable to handle what was happening.

"The…the man in the…" Drizzt felt all the blood drain from his face. "The man who was assaulting that woman and her baby? He was a member of the law?"

"Surprise, surprise," Artemis muttered behind him.

Wulfgar scowled at the ex-assassin, even not knowing who it was. "Who is that?" the barbarian muttered.

"I…" Words failed him. "Please." Drizzt sought out Wulfgar's eyes. "You have to believe me. I…I can't leave him here. He deserves another chance."

"Who is it?"

Everyone was staring into the cell at the person in the shadows.

Drizzt shifted uncomfortably. "It's…it's Entreri. But don't say that anymore. That's not his name. It's…not a good idea. He's very upset. Just call him Artemis for now."

"What is he doing up here?" Catti-brie looked hysterical. "What is he doin' up here? I thought he was down in the realm of Calimport! I don't like him, Drizzt, I don't trust him! You're not letting him out of there! He scares me!"

"You hear that?" Artemis said, looking up at them with calm, gray eyes. "I scare her. Do what she says, Drizzt. Leave me here."

Drizzt looked at him helplessly, guilt growing inside his chest. "I…I can't leave him here." He looked at them, frightened but resolute. "Please. If you get me out, get him out as well. Otherwise…Otherwise we'll have to find a different way. I can't leave him here."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Regis demanded. He'd been silent the whole time, looking queasy because of their surroundings, but now a flicker of anger lit his cherubic features. "What has he done to you? Is he holding you hostage? He can't bully you!"

_Why won't they listen?_ Drizzt turned away, looking at Artemis' bowed figure. "He's not the assassin we know. He's come a long way from home, and he's changed. He's being kept here against his will, I don't care why, and I'm taking him with us. He needs someone to help him. He does. He needs someone."

"Why does it have to be you?" Regis asked. He pouted stubbornly.

"I came here," Drizzt said. "I am here in this cell with him. It has to be a sign of some sort. I am supposed to do this. I am supposed to help him. Please. Help me help him."

Regis looked away, distraught by this.

"If you're inclined to listen to anything I say, hear this," Artemis said. "Take him with you. He deserves to be let out of here." He let out a bleak laugh. "Me? Let me stay here. I'll walk to my end willingly. Don't let him dissuade you. You are wise to leave me here, where I cannot hurt anyone else."

The Companions all exchanged glances amongst themselves.

Artemis sighed. "Drizzt, come here."

Drizzt hesitantly tore his eyes from his friends and went to the corner, bending down.

Artemis took a small, flat object out of his pocket. "Take this." He placed it in Drizzt's palm and sighed. He stared up at the ceiling. "This is a device that is used to call Jarlaxle. If you have difficulty escaping, call him. I am sure he will help you. I am not sure of much, but I do know this: He owes you, or your family, a substantial debt. He will not let you down."

Drizzt stared at him, stunned, and at the smooth river stone in his hand. "If you could call him this entire time…"

Artemis turned pain filled eyes on him. "Why would I want to? It has been three years, and it is too soon to talk to him."

Drizzt closed his hand around the stone and nodded. His throat was too tight to speak.

"Time's up," the guard said.

"Wait!" Catti-brie tried to stay behind, grabbing onto one of the bars in the door. She was forcibly escorted away with the rest of the Companions.

The drow ranger felt a heavier weight on his shoulders than ever before. He had the responsibility of not only getting Artemis out of here, but the responsibility of calling Jarlaxle to do it and somehow making amends between the two mercenaries. He couldn't let Artemis refuse escape just because he was so hurt over Jarlaxle he refused to talk to the drow. And Drizzt knew that Artemis hadn't been thinking clearly when he only said Jarlaxle had betrayed him. For if Jarlaxle let himself be tied down to anyone to the extent of leaving a device he could be summoned with at any time, then he cared a great deal more than anyone could ever think to give him credit for.

Drizzt could say with almost certainty that Jarlaxle cared for Artemis more than Jarlaxle had ever cared about Zaknafein. He clenched his fist around the smooth river stone.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7**

---------------------

They were both awakened the next day by someone rattling the door to their cell. Artemis sat up, rubbing his eyes, and Drizzt got to his feet, combing a hand through his tangled hair.

"Heh." The guard smirked at them when he gave them the two wooden trays heaped with food. "Execution tomorrow. Enjoy your last meal." He pulled the door shut with a rusty shriek.

Drizzt looked at him in alarm.

That expression made the guard shake his head and chuckle all the way down the hall.

Artemis snorted at Drizzt's expression, seeming almost as amused. "Eat your sweet potatoes," he said. "They'll grow cold. Do you want your last meal to be a poor one?"

Drizzt scowled at him. "It's not our last meal." He showed Artemis the river stone. "Remember? I'm getting us out of here."

The drow ranger rubbed the stone and spoke the word written on it in drow language. He didn't know what it meant, but he could still sound it out. "Y'ghrathe."

Drizzt stumbled back. The results were instant. An enormous cloud of blue smoke erupted in the middle of the cell, smelling strangely of pumpkin and candy.

"Artemis! I knew you'd call on me sooner or later!" Jarlaxle burst into chatter even before the colored smoke dissipated. He looked around in confusion. "Artemis?" Then he saw the ex-assassin sitting in the corner, and his smile turned back on again. "There you are!" He swept Artemis into his arms and hugged him.

Drizzt was staring. He thought his eyes might fall out from the shock.

Artemis hung in Jarlaxle's arms limply. He didn't even look at Jarlaxle's face. "Hello," he whispered.

"I'll get you out of here," Jarlaxle said kindly. "We'll talk later. You're exhausted by your ordeal."

He turned around and pretended to be surprised. "Oh. Hello, Drizzt. How are you this fine morning?"

"Not so fine," Drizzt said dryly. "But you'll fix that, I have no doubt. Are you here to rescue me, as well?"

Jarlaxle shrugged. "Well, since you're here…" He shook his head and chuckled. "My, you do get into trouble, don't you." He was still holding Artemis.

Artemis looked as though he didn't care. About anything. His expression was completely unchanging.

Jarlaxle tipped his plumed hat and gestured grandly to the solid wall. "Let's be out of here, shall we?"

On cue, a sparkling blue portal appeared in front of them. Jarlaxle grinned smugly.

Drizzt stared at it. "Kimmuriel."

"Of course!" Jarlaxle said. He waved a hand. "After you, Drizzt."

Drizzt cautiously walked through. He found himself high on a hill, looking at Luskan in the distance. Kimmuriel was sourly standing there, and so were his friends.

Artemis and Jarlaxle appeared soon after him, and the portal closed.

"He told us he was bringin' ye," Bruenor said. He wiped his face with a fist to get rid of something that looked suspiciously like a tear. "But I didn't believe him." He rushed forward and squeezed Drizzt so tight the drow almost popped.

When the dwarf let go, Drizzt laughed and rubbed his sore ribs. "I'm glad to be free of that place, too."

"We can't go back to Luskan anytime soon," Catti-brie said. "They'd arrest ye again."

Jarlaxle stood there, grinning at everyone with one arm around Artemis' shoulders. Artemis leaned on him as if exhausted. "I love reunions."

Kimmuriel wrinkled his nose. "May I be excused?"

"Sour puss," Jarlaxle said fondly. "Go, you cranky elf."

Kimmuriel glared at him and disappeared through another blue portal, which he closed after himself.

"I thought you would never call," Jarlaxle said softly to Artemis.

Artemis averted his eyes. "Drizzt called. Not me."

"But you gave the stone to him to use."

Artemis didn't deny it.

Jarlaxle smiled at him. "I'm glad to have you back."

Artemis grunted.

Drizzt was watching this scene with interest. They were far closer than he had suspected. Artemis was letting Jarlaxle touch him, and Jarlaxle was treating Artemis like a puppy or something.

Wulfgar tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around. Wulfgar hugged him. Then he stepped back and let Drizzt and Catti-brie embrace. Seeking privacy, Drizzt held her hand and led them both into the woods. Having no reason to stay, Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis followed at a distance.

"I am sorry about the flute," Jarlaxle said, trying to meet Artemis' eyes. His smile faded.

"Don't be," Artemis said. He was struggling with some emotion. "Why would I want to carry around the name of that man, anyway? You did me a favor."

"It hurt you." Jarlaxle finally got Artemis to look him in the eyes.

Artemis' eyes flared angrily. "Life is pain. I should have expected that by now. I should never have trusted the gift you gave me." He visibly struggled again. "But I have not thanked you for what came out of it."

"Still, I did not want to hurt you," Jarlaxle insisted.

Artemis looked away. "Save it. You did. Debating that part of what happened is pointless. What is not pointless is accepting that some good came out of the pain, and to take that positive aspect with me."

Jarlaxle seemed to have difficulty with this, but he nodded, swallowing hard. "What do you do now?"

"I don't know." Artemis grinned. "Drizzt and I are no longer enemies. Perhaps I should stay a while with him before he tires of me."

Jarlaxle winced. "I never tired of you."

Artemis sighed. "Never mind. You can say what you want. The fact remains that I no longer felt wanted or needed, and I left. If you truly missed me…" He frowned. "I can't go with you." He shook his head. "Things will never be the same. I hope you know that."

Jarlaxle had trouble keeping his expression from showing deep hurt. "I do."

Artemis sighed again. "I don't want it to be so…but I cannot help what has already occurred. You know that too."

Jarlaxle nodded. "But I had hoped…" He trailed off.

The assassin looked at the ground, then raised his eyes to Jarlaxle's. "We are still friends…We will always be that. But I no longer feel I can be your companion."

Jarlaxle held himself together. "I understand. I've returned to Menzoberranzan anyway. My people…needed me there. Kimmuriel grew bored, and Bregan D'aerthe resented me for leaving." He forced a smile. "If you ever need me." He waved a finger sternly.

Artemis smiled. His smile came naturally. "I'll ask." Then his expression grew wicked. "You'd best be prepared for some unpleasant favors."

This drew a chuckle from Jarlaxle. "I will." He saluted. "Good-bye, my friend. I hope you have success wherever you find it." He paused, as though he wanted to say something more, but the shimmering blue portal appeared. He shook himself out of it and walked through the portal. The portal closed.

Artemis looked around. He stood atop a hill, Luskan in the distance, and trees were all around him. Pragmatism told him that the easiest way to get somewhere he knew would be to follow Drizzt and his friends and ask to travel with them until they once again reached Mithral Hall.

He shrugged, and set off into the woods, following their trail.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8**

---------------------

Drizzt had intended nothing more than to make sure he was alone with Catti-brie and fulfill his long-held desire to kiss her.

They were in a beautiful forest clearing, and the clouds were beginning to thin and part, but he didn't care. She was all he was paying attention to.

"Catti-brie."

She turned to him, large eyes trained on his face.

He threaded his delicate fingers through hers.

"I love you…"

She bit her lip.

He leaned in, slowly tilting his head.

"Why were ye with him?"

He had to hastily rock back on his heels to make it look like he hadn't been leaning in to put his lips to hers. His face was warm with embarrassment. "I thought we settled all this. I am here now, and Artemis has been released, so why don't we move on? I am safe now."

Catti-brie looked indignant. "But ye never said why ye were so keen to get him out!"

"I – I was trying to give him a second chance," Drizzt said. He anxiously took her hands into his again. "Can't we let him live in peace?"

She yanked her hands away and gestured angrily. "Live in peace? Since when has that swarthy son of a whore ever lived in peace?"

"Cat!" Drizzt stared at her, shocked.

"What?" she yelled. "He done nothing but cause us trouble, and ye defend him like he done save children! He's a monster! He kills for a livin'!"

"He has paid for his crimes in his own weight in suffering," Drizzt said, almost speechless. "He can't be held accountable for misdeeds he's already atoned for because of his hardship."

"What hardship? I don't see him toiling over a field all day, tryin' to feed a wife and seven children! I don't see him beggin' in the street! He looks fine!"

"He barely ate anything in over three days, and he's been beaten, put down, ridiculed, and exiled more times than he can count," Drizzt said. "He's not someone who has profited by what he did."

She looked made enough to snap her bow in two and then kick the pieces. "You stubborn-headed drow! You coulda died because o' him! I was kidnapped! Regis got his fingers severed! We all suffered because of him!"

Drizzt backed away. He felt strangely intimidated by her at this moment. When she'd yelled at Wulfgar, it was funny, but now that she was yelling at him…it didn't feel so good. His skin was tingling all over, and the aggressive stance she had was making his heart beat in terrified thuds he could both feel and hear. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He could usually argue with anybody for at least half an hour before giving in, but here, in front of her, his tongue felt stuck to the bottom of his mouth.

A familiar voice sounded behind him. "I see I've walked into the middle of a lover's quarrel."

Drizzt turned on his heel to face Artemis and blanched. "What happened?" The ex-assassin was gray, a horrible pallor that showed he was weak from blood loss. "You shouldn't even be standing!"

Artemis stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

"You psychopath!" Drizzt didn't bother debating with the stubborn man when his life was at stake. He ran over and started patting down his body to find the wounds.

Artemis shoved him away. "What are you doing?" he snapped.

Drizzt gaped. "You can't want to die! Not after escaping!"

Artemis looked at the ranger as if it were Drizzt who was suffering from insanity. Then he touched his cheek and looked deeply uncomfortable. He opened his mouth, but he was so troubled that nothing came out. He licked his lips and tried again. "It is not what it looks like."

"It looks like ye've been spying on us when someone gave ye what ye deserved," Catti-brie shot at him, finally recovered from her shock. "I oughta slay you, ye peeping tom!"

"A peeping tom is one who sees a woman when she is exposed," Artemis said, giving her a look. "Since you are fully clothed, I can only assume that you have no idea what you are talking about."

"Why, you little –" Catti-brie spluttered, her face turning a shade of bright red.

Drizzt turned away from her with difficulty, feeling guilty that he wasn't comforting her. "If you're not dying, what happened to you?"

"I have looked this way ever since fighting a shade in Heliogabalus," Artemis said. He looked at the ground, seeming disturbed by the memory of it. "I had an accident…due to my jeweled dagger."

"You stole some of its life force," Drizzt breathed, staring at him.

"As I said, it was an accident."

"I don't care!" Catti-brie yelled, stammering. She didn't seem to know what to do with both Drizzt and Artemis ignoring her.

Drizzt gave her an annoyed look. "You should really calm down. He's done nothing to harm us since we've met once more."

Catti-brie looked at him in confusion, settling down. "What is going on here?"

"It is the truth," Drizzt said, glaring at her. "I have formed a truce with Artemis. I have not been lying. This is a new development between us, and I intend to honor our peace agreement. Now stop."

She fell silent.

"I did not mean to cause a split between you," Artemis said, bowing to her. "If it is your wish, I will quickly leave and bother you no more."

Catti-brie looked at him hesitantly. "If…If'n Drizzt says it's okay…maybe ye should stay. Why are ye here in the first place, Entreri?"

Artemis winced. "I am in need of assistance in reaching the next town. I do not know where I am, and am not familiar with this area."

"Artemis," Drizzt hissed at Catti-brie. "I told you. Call him Artemis. He doesn't like being called that other name anymore."

Catti-brie couldn't seem to fit her mouth around the syllables. "A-Artemis." She looked faintly sick. "Ye're…welcome to come along with us. I won't cause ye any more trouble." She softly left, walking off to join her father, Wulfgar, and Regis.

"I'm sorry," Drizzt said, bowing his head. "I didn't know it would cause this most dissent to make peace with you."

Artemis sighed heavily. "It is alright. I am used to such reactions. I have made my life a bane to all that enjoy living. It is natural that I am not welcomed."

Drizzt squeezed his arm.

Artemis looked at him, surprised.

"It will get better," Drizzt said. "They will come to accept you."

"Are you trying to comfort me, Do'Urden?"

"Maybe." Drizzt looked at him innocently. "You wouldn't mind if I tried, would you?"

Artemis scrutinized him. "I have half a mind to leave right now."

"Why?" Drizzt asked.

Artemis smiled. "I'll no doubt hate traveling with all of your close-minded and sanctimonious friends."

Drizzt laughed. "They're not that bad. They just seem that way because they hate you."

"Comforting."

"I didn't say it was comforting."

"Good. Because then I'd have to note possible cranial damage."

Drizzt stuck his tongue out at him.

Artemis sighed. "I suppose now you want me to go over and introduce myself to your friends as a traveling companion."

"That would be helpful," Drizzt agreed, grinning.

"How did I know you were going to say that."

Artemis visibly resigned himself, then walked beside Drizzt to where his friends sat camped.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9**

-------------------------

Drizzt walked into the clearing, closely followed by Artemis, and saw that his friends had erected a campfire. "Are we stopping already?"

Regis looked up from putting a few partridges on a spit. "I got hungry," he said plaintively. "All this worry about whether or not we could save you, then Jarlaxle showing up with that creepy psionicist of his, and then Artemis E –" He stopped and stammered ineffectually when he noticed Artemis standing right there. "Uh….um…hi. Want some breakfast?"

"Breakfast," Artemis said. He stared, furrowing his brow. Then he pointed to the sun, almost hanging directly in the middle of the sky.

"You know," Regis said, smiling innocently. "Third breakfast."

Artemis opened his mouth, a ridiculous expression of surprise on his face, and then shook his head, groaning. "Right. Third breakfast. My pardon."

"What happened to second breakfast?" Drizzt asked.

"I ate it on the way."

Drizzt had to bite his lips to stifle the laughter immediately bubbling up in his throat. "I see. Then we may as well eat."

Artemis seemed reluctant, but Drizzt led him to one of the logs around the campfire and sat down, then gestured at the ex-assassin. Artemis looked away, and finally sat. He made the mistake of looking up. He was across from Catti-brie. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. She glared at him. He didn't say anything.

"Cat told me what happened between you two," Bruenor said casually, working on grinding up edible roots into a paste. The cast iron pot sat on his knee while he worked with the pestle. "I shoulda told 'er somethin' would happen. Ye get determined sometimes, and when ye do, nothin's gonna talk ye outta it."

Wulfgar nodded morosely. Finally, he looked up at Artemis and muttered, "I know it's only too easy to fall from the path. It's not something trifling."

Artemis didn't look as if he knew how to respond to that proffered compassion. He looked away. "I have wasted an entire life."

"You're not dead yet," Wulfgar pointed out. "At the most, you've only wasted some of one."

Artemis' gaze snapped back to the barbarian. He looked at Wulfgar strangely.

"I would have died if it hadn't been for Delly," Wulfgar said. "The right thing to do is often hanging by a thread. Just because you feel bad doesn't mean you should cut it, alright?"

Artemis finally worked up enough resolve to respond. "What…did sliced meat have to do with your redemption?"

Wulfgar looked indignant, and everyone else around the fire immediately tried to stifle their laughter. "That's her name! She's my woman!"

Artemis blinked rapidly and sat back on the log as though he were recoiling, but trying to look as if he wasn't. "I see. I am happy for you."

Wulfgar crossed his arms, looking miffed, but seemed to accept the apology.

They ate. Artemis suddenly realized he was hungry, and tried not to eat too fast. He also didn't like the idea of looking desperate in front of his former enemies.

"So, Entre –uh, Artemis – where are ye going?" Catti-brie asked. She tried to sound casual, but her smile was strained, and so was her voice.

Artemis looked at the fire. "I don't know."

"Oh." She tried smiling again. "Oh well. Um. I'm suren ye'll figure it out."

"What are you going to do for a living?" Wulfgar asked.

"I don't know."

"Perhaps you have friends you could stay with," Regis said around a mouthful of food. "After all, you're a likeable fellow."

Artemis glared at him. There was only a faint hint of malice on Regis' cherubic face, but Artemis felt his hostility keenly. "Thank you. I suppose I can always find a place in some city. I am used to city dwelling."

"Ye got a girl somewhere?" Bruenor asked, taking a swig from his flask.

"No."

"Aye, well, that's a pity."

Drizzt shifted uncomfortably at all the questioning aimed at the ex-assassin. "You could travel with us to Mithral Hall, perhaps take residence in a nearby town. Nesmé is a nearby town. I could vouch for you. You could start your life anew there."

Everyone stared at him in silence.

"I – I would be happy to vouch for you," Drizzt said, looking at his friends uneasily.

"Of course," Regis said, beaming. "It's only natural. No one should be held to their past. I can vouch for you too. What would you like? 'Good with a knife'? You could get a job as a butcher."

Wulfgar glared at the halfling. "Don't be stupid, Regis! Why would he want to work in a butcher's shop for the rest of his life?"

"I don't know," Regis said, putting on his most innocent face. "I just thought he'd be good at it."

Drizzt looked at him sharply. "Are you antagonizing him? Why?"

Regis pouted. "I'm not antagonizing anybody. I'm just stating a fact. He's a good butcher."

"You are," Drizzt said, looking at Regis with surprised animosity.

Regis shrugged and tried to look sheepish.

"Leave it," Artemis said, turning away. "He can say what he likes. An outcast doesn't have the right to choose what people say about him."

"So now you're the victim?" Regis asked.

"He can't say what he likes," Drizzt exclaimed. He looked at Regis with burning eyes. "You are my friend! If you can't handle the decisions I make, then you should respect them! Instead you're attacking me for choosing to give a beaten man a second chance!"

Regis hid behind Catti-brie. "I am not," he protested. "Find a beaten man and give him a second chance, and I'll be right behind you. I just don't see someone in need of help, here."

"I do!" Drizzt said. "Can you not find it in your heart to trust my judgement?"

Regis peeked out from behind the auburn haired woman. "Um…Not when you're wrong, Drizzt. He's a killer."

"He's a former killer. That's not the same thing."

"Oh, like he's not going to murder us all in our sleep just because he can."

Drizzt quickly looked at Artemis in alarm, but Artemis was just sitting there with a dull expression on his face, staring at the grass.

"No, he's not," the ranger said loudly. "He's not going to hurt us. Any of us. And even if he did attack, it would be to our faces, and not in the middle of the night. He's an honorable man."

Regis gagged on that statement.

Drizzt narrowed his eyes. "If you're trying to drive him away, I won't let you get out of reconciliation that easily." He put a hand on Artemis' arm to make sure the ex-assassin wasn't going anywhere. "You are going to truce with him, and you are going to like it."

"I told ye," Bruenor sighed. "He's a durned stubborn elf."

"Now, let's finish our third breakfast and be on our way." Drizzt glared at them all.

His friends ate in sulky silence. Artemis did not eat anything. Once they were finished, they did the dishes in a nearby stream and packed up their belongings. They walked together, but there was an extra space all around Artemis none of them would enter. Drizzt found himself wandering closer to close the gap in their ranks. He wasn't sure, but he thought that the short glances Artemis kept aiming his way were gratitude.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

--------------------------------

After another full day during which no one wanted to be anywhere near Artemis, Drizzt had enough. His companions were sitting on opposite sides of the fire, eating off separate parts of the roast, bathing in different parts of the stream… His face burned with embarrassment that he couldn't keep his word to someone about a truce. His word. They were humiliating him.

Then he thought of a plan. "Say…" Drizzt paused in the act of eating a chicken leg. "Didn't you say something about unfinished business in Silverymoon?"

"Aye," Bruenor said. He frowned, surprised. "Me Catti-brie wanted ter look into learnin' summa that magic stuff they have around there. Her mum were a mage, ye know, an' she decided she might wanna follow in her mum's footsteps."

"And I have to be getting home," Wulfgar said. "I left Delly and the baby alone with a friend's. They're up in Ten Towns right now."

"It sounds like the most efficient thing to do would be to split up," Drizzt suggested. He smiled at them.

"Split up?" Artemis asked. He gave Drizzt a look of mingled confusion and dislike.

Drizzt placed his hand over his heart. "I, of course, have vowed to guide Artemis here to a suitable dwelling, and have no intention of breaking my obligations. It seems we would all be best served if we broke off from the group at Silverymoon and went our separate ways."

The Companions grumbled, and glanced at each other, but they had no reason to say nay.

Artemis alone seemed to detect the slight twinkle of chicanery in Drizzt's eyes. He gave Drizzt a look halfway between amusement, and anger.

So they traveled to Silverymoon. Once in front of the city, the Companions bade each other goodbye. Catti-brie hugged Drizzt and Wulfgar, and made Drizzt promise to be home by the time she arrived. Bruenor warned Artemis not to be up to 'any of his old tricks' and try to kill Drizzt the moment their backs were turned. Regis went with Bruenor and Catti-brie into Silverymoon, and Wulfgar headed home alone.

Drizzt and Artemis began the long trek towards Mithral Hall.

The next place they stopped to camp, in a little woodland clearing, Artemis spoke what was on his mind.

"Why did you want to be alone?" Artemis demanded.

Drizzt snorted. "I didn't want to be alone. My companions are the ones who decided to be pains in the arse and gave me no other choice. If they had been more pleasant, I wouldn't have had to make excuses to split up."

Artemis narrowed his eyes at him. "They don't see this side of you or give you credit for it, do they?"

Drizzt shrugged. "They wanted me to be more human. I gave them what they wanted. They don't really understand where I come from, so it's best to pretend as though I am some sort of paladin."

"It makes them feel safe."

Drizzt nodded. "It makes them feel comfortable choosing me over other drow. Because I'm different."

"Aren't you?" Artemis asked, frowning dubiously.

The ranger shrugged. "I thought so, in the beginning, and I did start trying to distance myself from other drow, that's true." A slight frown passed over his face. "But when I look at Jarlaxle, and think back upon my father, I can't help making the uneasy connection that I could be as they are. I see myself in them." He smiled wryly. "You can imagine that I don't tell this to my friends."

"I didn't see this in you the last time we met," Artemis said.

"It wasn't there the last time we met." Drizzt shrugged. "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and you made me think about more things. These past few days have been very instructional for me."

"Instructional."

"Yes." Drizzt paused, and looked startled at the look on his face. "You don't believe me, do you?" He tried to hide a slight smile. For some reason he couldn't fathom, the look of wariness on Artemis' face was… mildly endearing somehow.

"I don't have a history of meeting people who are actually capable of change," Artemis said. "So no."

Drizzt stuck out his hand. "I really am trying to. I mean it. I want us to become friends, instead of rivals. We've already come a long ways."

Artemis thought about leaving. He thought about turning back. He could change his mind, travel on his own, escape this awkward situation of ushering in friendship. He didn't have a friendship with Dondon that worked, he couldn't keep a relationship with Dwahvel if he couldn't be there, he was emotionally battered from Jarlaxle's ham-fisted attempts to be a true friend…How could he accept Drizzt's offer and try again? How could he possibly set himself up for another fall?

He almost said no. He almost turned back. But then he thought of how little it would do to slow his demise. Without someone around to keep him talking, keep him on his feet, keep his brain working, he would stagnate. Fall. It had almost happened by the time he had been captured by some bounty hunter and turned over to Luskan authorities. The man overpowered him because he couldn't bring himself to care.

He'd said to his face, "Kill me, wound me, beat me, it doesn't matter. I don't care any more, and you don't have the power to make me."

Artemis took Drizzt's hand. "Fine. But don't start calling me 'your heroic companion' at dinner parties."

He let go quickly enough and crossed his arms, just to show that no displays of unearned affection were forthcoming.

Drizzt gave him a warm look anyway.

He snorted.


	11. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

For the first week of their journey together, they were largely silent. They shared meals, and took turns keeping watch over each other, and did all of the things that Drizzt would have associated with his friends. Except talk. Though there was no conflict between them, Drizzt felt, unsurprisingly, a lot of tension. He didn't know what he had expected to be doing once he had sent his friends away, but it wasn't this day in and day out silence.

So, he tried to fill it. They were only a handful of days from Mithral Hall, and the closer they got, the more Drizzt aspired for some kind of neat resolution that would fix everything and tie together the former assassin with the rest of the elven ranger's life. He made repeated offers to put Artemis up at Mithral Hall, or to show him how good it felt to do things to help other people, like save caravans from orcs and defend villages from bandits and goblins. He was rebuffed. He got the sense that Artemis wasn't talking not because he didn't have anything to talk about, but because he didn't want to talk about what was on his mind.

And when it came to what was on Artemis' mind, Drizzt didn't know if he dared to talk. He sensed that the time had past. They had seemed unnaturally close for enemies when they had been imprisoned in their cell at Luskan, drawn together by some other force. But now that force was gone, and it was just him, and a tired old human who had once been his greatest enemy.

Drizzt mulled it over again as they walked side by side through the woods. He could _sense_ getting closer to home – like a tug on his heart.

"Jarlaxle seemed mightily happy to see you." His mouth decided for him, like it always had. He tensed and waited for a response – even a violent one.

Artemis said nothing. He kept walking, eyes set straight ahead. The silence was cold. Drizzt rubbed his arms and buried himself in his cloak, trying to tell himself that it was just that the wind had picked up.

"That wasn't the problem."

Artemis took so long to speak that Drizzt was surprised when he heard the assassin's voice. His head snapped up.

"That was never the problem." Deep lines of pain were engraved on Artemis' face. His voice rumbled in his throat. "Jarlaxle has always been happy to see me."

Drizzt stopped him from walking away by putting his hand on his arm. He was conscious that he could lose his hand that way, and would have before their understanding so recently. "Then, why?"

Artemis shut his eyes. "Because he never goes away. He has to see into the heart of me and disassemble the gears like a gnome with his machinery. But I'm not a machine, I'm a human being, and I need to live." His voice rose the more he talked, and his fists were clenched so tightly that they almost broke the skin of his palms. "In his friendship, he is bent on destroying me!"

When he opened his eyes and looked at Drizzt, there was a flicker of desperation in them bordering on madness. It took Drizzt aback. "I can't go back to that." Artemis swallowed hard. "No matter how he apologizes to me."

Drizzt was staring into the abyss of his eyes. He had the mad compulsion to hug Artemis. It was only held back by his certainty that Artemis would impale him on his sword long before realizing that the elf had meant no hostility. "I, for one, am no one to force you to do that," he said softly.

Artemis looked at him as if he'd never seen him before. His deeply confused gray eyes probed the ranger so intently that Drizzt felt…an almost sexual kind of invasion of space. The feeling he had of being naked under his clothing. Drizzt shook the feeling off and returned his gaze.

"Take me back to Mithral Hall," Artemis said, his voice almost inaudible. "I will stay a while."  
"I promise you that it won't be a cause for regret," Drizzt said, squeezing his arm and letting go before Artemis could find offense.

His gray eyes pierced him. "Don't tell me that."

"I won't make you regret your decision."

"Don't tell me that."

Drizzt lowered his head. He looked away first. "Fine. Should you regret another attempt at rebuilding a life, I am sorry for causing you this trouble."

"It's not a worse trouble than any other I have faced," Artemis said. "Don't worry about it." He tried to smile. "That's my job."

Drizzt pulled up the courage to smile back.

Artemis didn't punish him for it.


End file.
